Love Live! Sunshine!! Season 2 Episode 5: Taking in a Dog

This season so far is definitely delivering what I wanted. Each episode it just pokes at another issue I want addressed, they do it well, and I’m happy af.

• Bonding episode (✓)
• Character-centric episodes for:
  • Riko (✓)
  • Dia (✓)
  • Ruby (✗)
  • Kanan (✗)
  • You (✗)
• More screentime for some of the girls that couldn’t get it last season (✓/✗)

This episode was pure and soft. Yoshiko finds a dog lost in the rain and keeps it a secret from the rest. When Riko’s mother sends her to Yoshiko’s place to drop off Yoshiko’s mother’s phone, Riko bumps into Yoshiko and becomes aware of the dog. Yoshiko is saddened that she can’t keep pets in her apartment complex and so she asks Riko to take Laelaps the puppy and keep her for a bit. Of course with her fear of dogs, Riko is reluctant but she takes the dog anyway. She’s terrified of it at first but surprisingly she quickly falls for it and happily buys it toys and treats for the puppy Nocturne/Laelaps. But unfortunately they can’t keep him.

So this was both a Riko and Yoshiko episode. A YohaRiko episode, if you will. And I don’t mind it at all because they managed to give sufficient development for both girls. Another thing I wanted from this season (✓) was Riko hanging out and talking with someone that wasn’t Chika, because…please, Riko’s development shouldn’t be based around Chika! And this episode gave that to me as she’s become closer with Yoshiko. It was hinted in the first episode that their moms are good friends now so it’s normal that Riko and Yoshiko would also become closer. I actually really like their interactions, too. To me they feel more…natural, if that makes sense. Whenever Riko is with Chika, they always feel cheesy. Maybe it’s because the team was pushing ChikaRiko real hard, causing it to become so forced, that their interactions also felt forced to me. Which became annoying and unenjoyable for me quickly. I can see them slightly nudging at a YohaRiko ship this episode but it at least felt more natural and normal to me. It was really fun watching them argue to who should take the puppy, how downtrodden both of them were at school the day after returning Anko to its rightful owner, drawing pictures of it in sync and playing make believe fetch. Also, shoutout to Sunrise roasting Rikyako’s shit drawings and giving that same curse to Riko.

I’ve mentioned before plenty of times that I was never a huge fan of Yoshiko. I said this during her into episode last season, but I can’t stand her whole chunnibyou fallen angel thing. I like Yoshiko’s design, she can be funny at times, and I love her voice, but the chuuni thing always brought her down for me.

But the little conversation she had with Riko was incredibly touching. Again, this season is making more of these girls grow on me! She knows that fallen angels don’t exist, but she can’t help but believe that there are invisible forces out there guiding her. She said meeting Anko was destiny, that something led her to meeting the puppy. She mentions her bad luck, about her being clumsy, about rain suddenly pouring when she goes outside. I think her latching on to the whole fallen angel idea is what made her cope with her bad luck, even so she still had her doubts about fallen angels and invisible powers existing. Until she met Anko in the rain, as if an invisible power led her there. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence. To Riko, she believes invisible powers exist and reassures Yoshiko, while also telling Chika in the end that these invisible powers are the works of the different emotions of people that bring them all together. There’s no such thing as coincidences, but chance encounters that always have a meaning to them. That really is a nice way of seeing the world, isn’t it? And in the end, Riko gets over her fear of dogs and pets Shiitake on the head. 🙂

What an incredibly cute and sweet episode. I’m a person that never believed in destiny, but I like what Riko said about every meeting having a meaning. As usual there were funny bits, like Mari bringing in those doki eyes again and Hanamaru doing a pretty great impersonation of Yoshiko. One thing I noticed was the repeated use of animation, namely the scene where Yoshiko made Anko chase Riko. Speaking of, I’ve never found the scenes of the girls forcing dogs on Riko funny at all. -_- Meeting people with dog phobias, it’s NOT going to help them to stick a dog in their face or make a dog chase them. It’s actually really mean. I know those moments are supposed to be comedic, but it’s honestly pretty mean. Poor Riko.

Also I screamed because Yoshiko gave Anko milk. YOU CAN’T GIVE A DOG MILK!! Milk is very bad for dogs! They make dogs vomit. I know because I forcefully gave my dog milk when she accidentally digested a lot of chocolate from my trash, and the milk made her vomit (she’s fine). But yeah…

Riko and Yoshiko both were featured in the ED this time, I wasn’t expecting that! I was wondering who would appear in the end but it turned out to be both of them, which is very fitting and very cute. It just makes me more confused as to why You was featured in the end of the Dia episode…when…it should have been Dia. That still makes me angry. 😐